In his book, "Will You Die for Me?", Charles "Tex" Watson writes of a drug dealer who supplied Marijuana to the so-called "Family", as well as him and his girlfriend/drug dealing partner Rosina Kroner, during the short period of living and dealing together in Hollywood. As Watson put it, this dealer, "fronted the dope with a vending-machine
company and people said he was with the Mafia". Fast forward many years later to when a determined researcher into the many mysteries of the Tate-LaBianca murders obtains the FBI file of one Joel J. Rostau. For those who don't know, Rostau was a shadowy crime figure and then boyfriend of Charlene McCaffrey, a receptionist at the Los Angeles hair salon of Jay Sebring. As stated in the Second Tate Homicide Investigation Progress Report, McCaffrey told detectives that:
"that he had delivered cocaine and mescaline to the house but that Frykowski and Sebring wanted some additional narcotics and that he had gone back down the hill but was unable to locate the other narcotics they requested and therefore he did not return to the Tate residence."
Less than one year later, Rostau was found dead in the truck of a car at Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
In his FBI file, the name of an associate/crime partner named Eugene Massaro turns up multiple times. Massaro's own FBI file revealed something major in regards to the Tate-LaBianca murders and what Watson wrote in his book. In it, it is reveled that he was employed by and later named Vice President of a company called Chicago based firm called Disc-O-Mat at 7809 Sunset Blvd. in the heart of Hollywood. Disc-O-Mat was a vending machine company and believed to be a front for something criminal.Massaro had his hands in a little bit of everything illegal, including narcotics.This created a clear cut link between Charles "Tex" Watson and the victims of the Cielo Drive murders via the criminal underworld of the illicit drug trade.
Since then, not much has been known about Disc-O-Mat....until now.
Disc-O-Mat National Inc.
appears to have started in Chicago in 1967 as Disk-A-Mat Distributors, Inc.
Salvatore Michael Caruana of New England was President of the company and
distributor in the New England area. The company began with the introduction of
the Disk-A-Mat vender. A 10-selection machine with a 200-record capacity. It
was developed by Jack Moore and Newport Sales Company. The head of Newport
Sales Company was David Gorwitz. Newport, as in Newport, Rhode Island.
Photo from October 12th issue of Cashbox magazine
By 1969, the company rebranded as Disc-O-Mat National, Inc. in Los Angeles when Gorwitz’s teamed up with Don Orsatti, who was named president of the company. There isn’t much out there about Don Orsatti. The earliest mention I could find of him was in a 1962 Billboard magazine article about a firm he acted as president of called TeleRecord, that had “disk-by-wire plan”, whatever that was. The new Disco-O-Mat machine, developed by Gorwitz’s Newport Manufacturing Inc. company (previously Newport Sales Co.) had a 240 record capacity. Eugene Massaro was named as Vice President of Operations and Michael Caruana (Salvatore Michael Caruana) as representative in the New England market.
According to the 2021 book, The Language of Vinyl: Record Industry Terms and Phrases of the Golden Era, Disc-O-Mat:
“Attempted to sell the top hits
in unlikely places. In early 1969, the Dot, Capitol and Columbia labels
expressed interest in the new Disc-O-Mat vending machine, developed by Entrepreneurs
Don Orsattis and David T. Gorwitz of Los Angeles. They sought to sell the top
100 hits as the discs were being promoted to record distributors, rack-jobbers,
and radio stations. Plans called for the 100,000 machines to be placed in
supermarkets, teen retail stores, schools, fast-food restaurants, and
recreation sites. to help boost interest, the Disc-O-Mat owners planned to give
away copies of Go magazine at each machine. Unfortunately, after a promising
start, the Disc-O-Mat just didn’t go."
(Note: GO Magazine in one news piece was named as an "affiliate" of Disc-O-Mat. GO Magazine was created in 1967 by Robin Leach. Yes, THAT Robin Leach)
By now, a lot of people would think that Disco-O-Mat was a pretty legit and upstanding opperation. Maybe Massaro was just conducting illegal business unbeknownst to the company? Think again.
According to the 1989 book Inside
Job: The Looting of America’s Savings and Loans by Stephen Pizzo, David Gorwitz was:
“A fellow with a long criminal
record and established mafia ties”, who in 1975, “had made San Francisco headlines when he was caught up in the high profile prosecution of California
senator Richard Dolwig. Dolwig had lent his name and influence to an
advance-fee loan scam run by Gorwitz and David Kaplan, another minor hood”.
In court, Gorwitz was described
as “a muscleman for the mob” and financial advisor to Salvatore M. Caruana
(described by federal officials as a highly placed organized crime figure with
links to the Patriarca family). Gorwitz was convicted and sentenced to four
years.
When out he headed back to
Massachusetts. His old crime partner Caruana invested $80,0000 in Bay State
Gold Exchange in Plymouth, Massachusetts. His “trusted aide” Dave Gorwitz was
to keep an eye on his investment and owner of the business. Authorities belived
the business was a vehicle to launder money from his drug operations. Needless to say, this was probally a repeat of what Disc-O-Mat was.
In The FBI file for Massaro, it is mentioned:
"that he had recently gone into the vending machine business and was obtaining his
machines from Boston, Massachusetts. These machines, according
to source, were similar to a Juke box and played the top 40
songs. MASSARO was developing routes in various locations
where teenagers congregated .adjacent to schools. Source
stated that he believed these machines were coming from
representatives of RAYMOND PATRIARCA, New England La Cosa
Nostra boss."
That "representative" was the "New England Representative" of Disc-O-Mat, Salvatore Michael Caruana (aka "Mike Carvana")
1979 article, describing Caruana as an organized crime figure who "answers directly" to Raymond Patriarca
Interestingly enough, the
HQ for the Patriarca Crime Family was called Coin-O-Matic in Providence, Rhode Island.
A tobacco vending business that operated as a money-laundering front for human
trafficking, gambling, prostitution and so on. Here is a rather interesting article, appropriately called "Vending machines and organized crime" https://rhodetour.org/items/show/151
It's pretty damn clear by now, that Disc-O-Mat was an operation of the New England Crime Family, namely the Patriarca Crime Family or at least one with being conducted with blessings of Raymond Patriarca. In the above article it mentions Caruana not having to share in the profits, since it had the blessings of Patriarca. Both Massaro and Rostau were from New England.
In the late 80s Caruana was
busted for his smuggling of Marijuana ( millions and millions of dollars worth). He and David
T. Gorwitz. who was (surprise) helping him hide his money from the IRS, were indicted.
Bail was set at $500,000 which was paid and Caruana was released. A Prime Minister of the Bahamas was involved as well, also accused of helping to hide Caruana's profits Before
his trial, he vanished and is still missing. He was the subject of an episode
of Unsolved Mysteries.
Another link, not that we need one at this point is Jerry Zullo. Zullo, is named as an associate of Massaro in Massaro's FBI File:
"Information received from local authorities reflects that JERRY ZULLO, 09 Mt. Murenci, East Boston, Massachusetts, FBI No. 447743B, date of birth 12/2/31, is believed to be an associate of MASSARO. ZULLO allegedly operates a North Boston group involved in bookmaking. ZULLO's name and address were found on MASSARO on an occasion of his local arrest."
Jerry Zullo, was in fact an associate and crime partner of Salvatore Michael Caruana and was involved in his late 1970's/1980's Marijuana operation:
Another article that mentions not only Jerry Zullo and Salvatore Michael Caruana, but also Raymond Patriarca. The article is about the murder of Zullo's brother, who was also involved in Caruana's Marijuana operation.
So there you have. Disco-Mat
was run by New England Mobsters Salvatore Michael Caruana and David T. Gorwitz
and yes, was 100% a front for a drug operation.
Drug dealer Charles "Tex" Watson, Eugene Massaro, Joel Rostau and Hollywood "Candy man" Jay Sebring were always in a close vicinity. I sure would like to know where Gorwitz was living.
See even more on the Manson Mythos Map with over 100 locations bookmarked
Newspaper article from 1966 showing a rare picture of Eugene Massaro
Article about Disc-O-Mat by Linda Deutsch! Deutsch covered the Tate-LaBianca trial extensively and still appears on television specials about the case. Could it be a mere coincidence?
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